Monitoring coastal water turbidity using GOCI

Abstract

Dynamic variations in coastal water turbidity are key to understanding the sedimentary processes on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, which has vast tidal flats and a sedimentary environment affected by semi-diurnal tides. Here, we investigate temporal variations in total suspended matter (TSM) distribution along a coastal region using Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), the world’s first geostationary ocean colour observation satellite. The primary advantage of the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) over other ocean color satellite imagers is that it can obtain data every hour during the daytime, allowing ocean monitoring in near real time. TSM concentrations and water-leaving reflectance measured on the coastal water surface were used to develop an empirical TSM algorithm. TSM maps were generated from the GOCI images at hourly intervals to examine temporal variations in turbidity. Validation of the maps (via comparisons with in situ measurements) showed that the empirical TSM algorithm had been effectively employed. A comparison with the MODIS-derived TSM concentration also supported the reliability of the maps. GOCI-derived turbidity at 1-h intervals successfully represented hourly variations in TSM according to the tidal status. This study shows that the GOCI can be effectively used to monitor the temporal dynamics of the turbidity of coastal waters, i.e., sediment move investigate temporal variations in total suspended matter (TSM) distribution along a coastal region using Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), the world’s first geostationary ocean colour observation satellite. The primary advantage of the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) over other ocean color satellite imagers is that it can obtain data every hour during the daytime, allowing ocean monitoring in near real time. TSM concentrations and water-leaving reflectance measured on the coastal water surface were used to develop an empiri